is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker.
The New York Times Magazine
The Long Road from Xinjiang
He fled brutal repression — only to discover, as so many Uyghur refugees have, that China’s power stretches far beyond its borders.
Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma finalist | The Sunday Long Read Favorite | Financial Times Best of 2024
The New Yorker
Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State
Survivors detail the scope of China’s campaign of persecution against ethnic and religious minorities, including "reeducation" camps, prison sentences, forced sterilization, and coerced labor.
Link | PDF | The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast
Emmy Award | Peabody Award | Online Journalism Award for Excellence in Immersive Storytelling | Online Journalism Award for Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling | Deadline Club Award | Overseas Press Club Citation for Excellence | Longreads Best of 2021
The New Yorker
Reeducated
A 360-degree documentary takes viewers inside one of Xinjiang’s secretive “reeducation” camps.
Watch the film | Watch “How Reeducated Was Made”
Emmy Award | Peabody Award | Special Jury Recognition for Immersive Journalism at SXSW | Special Jury Prize at NewImages Festival | Grand Prize at VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival | Venice Biennale Best of VR Selection
The New York Times Magazine
The Trillion-Dollar Nowhere
In the remote steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, China is establishing the next foothold in its trillion-dollar campaign to transform global infrastructure.
Link | PDF
The Best American Travel Writing 2020
Virginia Quarterly Review
The Useful Village
In the fall of 2015, Germany designated Sumte, population 102, as a sanctuary for nearly 800 refugees. What followed was a living experiment in the country’s principles.
National Magazine Award finalist in feature writing | Staige D. Blackford Prize for Nonfiction | Overseas Press Club Citation for Excellence
The Believer
Weather Reports: Voices from Xinjiang
It was in some mountainous place. We drove out in a windowless van with a metal grate inside. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t understand what my sentence was—what I’d done wrong.
National Magazine Award finalist | Jamal Khashoggi Award for Courageous Journalism | The Reporting Award from New York University | Longform Best of World | The Believer Best of the Decade
The New Yorker
Scattered Leaves
In 2013, a Stanford medievalist stumbled upon a secret world of art dealers who destroy artifacts to sell their disjecta membra. I decided to track one down.